Surprised By My Band Director!!
If you don't already know, my band director has the concert band to chair placement tests every semester. Last semester I got second chair which also plays 1st clarinet music. If y'all don't know what that is, it means I played the really high notes. Now, I never considered myself a super good clarinet player... so I never thought that I would get anywhere close to second chair clarinet, but I did. I was surprised that I beat a bunch of seniors when I'm only a freshman. Then, I found out that the other clarinets that were third, fourth, and even farther back didn't do their chair placement. I was so upset but then I realized that my band director trusted me to play the melody and the solo's. Normally first chair got the solo's but if whoever has first chair doesn't want to play it then second chair got the solo's. I was second chair for the first semester of my high school years. I also did marching band for my high school, I started marching band in 8th grade. I hated it until I got to band camp, band camp is a week long process where the marching band learns their show and music. Band camp is when I realized how many new friends I was making. I began to really like all of my friends and I realized how much fun marching band was. My parents have to pay a lot of money for me to do Marching Band but they love watching us at the games and they know I love it. My first semester was hard because I was going to a new school and I didn't know where my classes were all at. I spent the day looking for my new classes and meeting my new teachers. I met all of my teachers and I passed all of my classes for that semester. I had a lot of homework and I had to focus on marching band as well. It's now the second semester, I met all of my new teachers again... we switch classes ever semester. This semester I have 3 core classes, English, Math, and World Studies. I also have my second semester band class! Now, I had to do my chair placement test again, but it was a different song this time. I did my chair placement test and turned it in on Tuesday night. (My school does everything online, so I just had to record myself playing it then turn it in on google classroom). Now it is Thursday and my band director passed out our music for our concert band competition. Today he let us keep the music he passed out, which means that the part we got helped us figure out what chair we got. I got first part again!! So, that means that I am going to be placed in first, second, or third chair clarinet. There are normally 3-4 clarinet parts, they higher your number is (let's say you get fourth part) the lower your notes will be. The lower the number (let's say you got first part) the higher your notes will be. I can't wait until my director finally tells us what chair we are! My friend kept asking me how fast I could play the song for our test and I told her to let me put my instrument together and I'll play it for her, she said "Alright." So, I went and put my instrument together and played the song, when I finished my entire class was clapping. Then, she gave me a dirty look and tried to play her music and went very slow. The song is supposed to be fast and I could play it faster than the tempo was set at. In class I asked her what part she got and before she answered she asked me the same question. I replied "I got first part on all my songs, just like last semester." She then gave me a look of failure and put her head down. After that the bell rang, right when I was about to ask her if she was ok... I feel super bad for her but I'm going to have to make sure she is ok tomorrow because I didn't see her again today. That's it for today.